Grateful

Today, Charlie fell 10 feet from the top of a playground structure to the ground below.

Thankfully, he seems fine.

We were playing at the park, getting ready to go home. Charlie, George and I were at the top of the structure. I held George in my arms. Charlie was excitedly showing me something- he had stuck a stick into the stairs' grating and he called it his tower. He was watching my reaction to his creation and he stepped away from me and into the opening to a ladder behind him, falling to the ground.

It was like a nightmare in slow motion. I couldn't get to him in time, couldn't reach for him because George was in my arms. The look on his face as he realized he was falling was horrible. I screamed his name as I watched him fall. All I could do was try to see what he hit on the way down. I screamed Catherine's name- my sister was there at the park, too, but had already begun loading her kids in the car in the nearby parking lot.

Another mom raced over toward Charlie as I slid down the slide with George, frantically trying to get to Charlie.

I put George down and ran to Charlie, afraid to move him. He was crying loudly, but not screaming. He cried, "Hold me!" I picked him up and moved him a few feet away from the ladder so that I could try to assess his injuries. I must have asked him if he was okay, because he kept saying, "I okay. I okay."

He was holding his arm and crying, "I got a big owie." Catherine had reached me by now and was with George. I think I remember her asking me if he was okay. Based on his crying, I could tell he was just upset and scared but not injured badly. He didn't want me to hold him, he just wanted to lay on my legs. After a minute or two of crying, he was able to calm down and I was able to look in his eyes and see they weren't dilated or unequal and touch his arm and see it wasn't tender or sore.

Catherine took George to the car and I tried to pick up Charlie to take him to the car, but he wanted to go back up the play structure and get his stick! So we traipsed up again, this time, my heart racing and my palms sweaty. We both were more skittish this time!

Once he was safely buckled into his car seat, the gravity of the situation (no pun intended) hit me. That was a big fall. He was wearing his puffy coat and fell into wood chips, so those may have cushioned the impact. But in my heart, I knew that he was protected by unseen forces. I said a prayer of humble gratitude that my precious boy was still with me, uninjured.

On our way home, Charlie recounted what had happened and how he planned to make sure it didn't happen again!
"I fell down. I got a big owie. The park tower broken, I fall down. Need to fix that park. Make a big blue square to catch me, I won't fall down!"

He is so special to me, I love him so much.